Pulmonary Collapse and Pneumonia Due to Inhalation of a Waterproofing Aerosol in Female CD-I Mice

Abstract

Waterproofing agents consist of mixtures of solvents, repellents and propellants. Because of a fatality and a number of acute respiratory illnesses in humans following the exposure to a waterproofing agent, the aerosol mixtures were tested in mice. Inhalation of the waterproofing agent resulted in pulmonary collapse and pneumonia in mice. By testing fractions of the waterproofing agent it was determined that the fluororesin repellents in the waterproofing agent were responsible for the acute respiratory illness. The water-repelling agent, such as fluororesin, may counteract the surfactant in the alveoli of the lung and cause diffuse pulmonary collapse followed by acute respiratory distress. The recent substitution of less toxic and environmentally more friendly solvents in waterproofing agents may facilitate fluororesin inhalation by increasing the amount of airborne aerosol and changing the diameter of the aerosol particles. This would explain the apparent recent increase of respiratory symptoms following the use of these agents. In this experiment the mice were exposed intermittently to overcome the CNS effects of the solvents.

An in vitro method for predicting inhalation toxicity of impregnation spray products

“…The potential health risk of impregnation products is well known, but pinpointing the causative agent that makes a product hazardous has proven difficult. The culprits have been suggested to be the droplet size (Yamashita et al, 1997a,b), the solvent (Kelly and Ruffing, 1993) or fluororesin (Yamashita and Tanaka, 1995). More recently it has been demonstrated that the toxicity of the product may be influenced both by the film-forming substance and the composition of the solvent mixture .…”

“…Both rats (Pauluhn et al, 2008), guinea pigs (Hubbs et al, 1997) and mice (Duch et al, 2014;Yamashita and Tanaka, 1995) are useful for this purpose. The mouse model used in the present study has previously been used to assess airway irritation potential of industrial chemicals (Alarie, 1973).…”

Acute respiratory distress associated with inhaled hydrocarbon

“…In contrast, there are limited data concerning pulmonary toxicity from occupational hydrocarbon aerosol exposure. Multiple authors have reported acute lung injury in humans and animals after accidental inhalation of waterproofing agents containing hydrocarbons; however, these products also contained fluoropolymers [Laliberti et al, 1995;Yamashita and Tanaka, 1995;Jinn et al, 1998;Daubert et al, 2009]. Direct pulmonary toxicity from inhalant abuse is rarely reported, though when identified is associated with halogenated hydrocarbons [Schloneger et al, 2009].…”

Importance of smoking and the occurrence of acute poisoning due to waterproof spray

“…In mice, inhalation of the waterproofing agent alone was proved to induce pulmonary collapse and pneumonia. 24 The fact that most cases of acute poisoning due to waterproof spray occurred indoors suggested that there could be a positive correlation between inhalation volume of waterproofing agent and severity of lung injury.…”